Nigel Nicolson
I liked Nelson: A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert (Viking, £20) because it is a perfect example of how to humanise greatness, and happily Nelson had enough faults to assist the process. The story is familiar but everlastingly fresh, and if Emma Hamilton shares the billing, that is no disadvantage. James Lees-Milne's A Mingled Measure (John Murray, £19.99) is the latest volume of extracts from his diary, 1953-72. Nobody has improved on his com- bination of affection and censure in dealing with friends dead and alive, and seldom has so much experience been more modestly distilled. He deserves a knighthood. Then there is the Art of Dora Carrington by Jane Hill (The Herbert Press, £19.99), the por- trait of a young woman whose paintings and drawings, like her personality, were almost unknown to the public in her life- time. Now she has emerged as Blooms- bury's most acceptable heroine, and this book, excellently illustrated, is by far the best summary of her achievement.
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